It was one of the lead news stories last night and this morning…
Matt THE FRANCHISE Cassel seated on the turf at Arrowhead, dazed and confused, fans cheering his pain. The media and Chiefs players led by Eric Winston, say, “We are bad guys for doing that, cheering for an injury.”
All due to Chiefs fan’s frustration with being a national joke and loser with both the Royals and Chumps.
And poor Matt is just the scapegoat for the bigger picture. Continue reading
Was Matt THE FRANCHISE Cassel REALLY HURT?
Is it possible that he’d had enough with the fans, the team and losing? Maybe, just maybe, as predicted by yours truly, THE FRANCHISE took this option and kinda faked injury. It’s sure a thought. That maybe he was not that badly hurt but will go on the injured reserve with a “head injury or concussion” and be out for the season and end his career with the Chiefs.
It’s been a nightmare for the Cassel, he wants out and now most likely he’s gone. Continue reading
Don’t look now, but Star reader rep Derek Donovan‘s recently-sparked controversy over use of NFL team the Washington Redskins name in the newspaper has blown up in his face…
“A caller this morning expressed his incredulity that The Star doesn’t normally print the name of Washingon’s NFL team: the Redskins…” Donovan wrote in his September 24 column. “I see no compelling reason for any publisher to reprint an egregiously offensive term as a casual matter of course.” Continue reading
Well football fans, last week was the big break I was looking for, right?
I was perfect in the pros – 4-0 – and that’s very tough these days. I dropped one in college, but still had a nice winning week. Let’s keep the heat on this weekend.
All that can be said about our Chiefs has been said. Now we know. Even the Wall Street Journal – a publication without a sports page – spanked our city as the worst in pro sports with two teams that haven’t won a post season game since 1985 (the Royals) and since 1993 for the Chiefs. Worst in the nation. Yikes.
Now we even have to hear about it from Wall Street. Continue reading
Hillary Clinton was photographed looking at Christina Aguilara‘s cleavage. I guess after a while you do start to LOOK like your spouse!
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The Royals have fired hitting coach Kevin Seitzer. He’s the reason the broad side of my barn is safe from being hit by the players.
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Why did Obama LOSE the debate? That “Innocence of muslims” video.
Why did Obama LOSE the debate? George W. Bush!
Why did Obama LOSE the debate? Global warming!
Why did Obama LOSE the debate? A vast RIGHT wing conspiracy.
Why did Obama LOSE the debate? Insensitive to muslim Egyptian Coptic Christians. Continue reading
Somewhere long before Wednesday’s season finale– before Eric Hosmer’s grand regression, before all of the season-ending ligament surgeries, before Royals’ fans realized with wretched horror that Bruce Chen was the ace of this ball club– before any of this, Sports Illustrated was jinxing the Kansas City Royals, whether they knew it or not.
In their annual season preview, they picked the Royals to go 82-80, good for second place in the division just behind the Detroit Tigers. They spotlighted KC as a team to watch!, poised for a remarkable turnaround. They expected big contributions from Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Danny Duffy. They anticipated a call-up of Wil Myers and that Aaron Crow would be a fantastic addition to the rotation, stating “Hochevar and Paulino are the most likely to yield their spots” because of heavy ties—both financial and developmental– to Jonathan Sanchez, Chen and Duffy.
The biggest question facing this “team on the rise”?
What sort of impact will newly acquired closer Jonathan Broxton make? Will he make a big impact or will he make a little impact? Will he return to All-Star form, or will he drown himself in a vat of smoky pulled pork and blow his elbow-bones into a thousand little pieces while attempting to drill a hole in the catcher’s mitt?
What the writer chose to ignore, however, is that he was writing about the Kansas City Royals. Continue reading
A few years ago I saw Ryan Adams for the first time…
When he finally took the stage he went all Ryan Adams, telling jokes, stopping songs in the middle, smoking and drinking, rambling around the stage.
You know, Ryan Adams.
One audience member got tired of his rock star act and yelled out, “Less talk, more rock!” Adams’ predictable response went something like, “Go fuck yourself.”
I, on the other hand, found Adams’ drunken stream-of-consciousness quite entertaining. I was probably biased, of course, because I was a huge fan of his music. And to be fair, he did deliver a bunch of killer tunes to go along with the never ending story about the best bowl of soup he ever ate. But his antics to me didn’t detract from the show, they actually added something. Continue reading
Four years ago the big surprise movie hit was TAKEN in which C.I.A. operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) rescued his daughter Kim from kidnappers in Paris…
In TAKEN 2, the action moves to Istanbul, Turkey where an Albanian clan boss and his goons set out on a journey of revenge.
Why?
Because the head goon is the father of the kidnapper, and former head of a human trafficking ring, who was killed by Mills in the original movie at its Paris setting. The new movie begins at the burial of all the kidnappers killed by Mills. Continue reading
The Star did a nice job of showing each team’s records in the four major pro sports groups today…
Included were the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL. And only one team had not been to the post season since 1985, nearly 30 years, guess who? The Royals. Nice. Hey, the Chiefs may not have won, but at least they got to the party.
While this year’s Royals still managed to lose 90 games, they did improve their win record an inch and finished in third. So yes, it was a bit better but not much.
The big reason for owning the fourth worst record in the American league; the failures of Eric Hosmer, Jeff Francoeur and Mke Moustakas.
None had any power or zip to speak of and none of them could even hit .250. Wow. And these were the young guys the Royals were counting on to be at least .500. Continue reading
They say 60 million Americans watched the Presidential Debate last night…
Both candidates, Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama looked sharp. Both are clearly very polished speakers.
However in my humble opinion neither really had much of a plan to do anything different or uplifting.
They both talked in circles citing meaningless numbers. Continue reading
Romney wins!
Now allow me to quote from the “Liberal Media.”
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews– “Where was Obama Tonight?”
Andrew Sullivan– “You know how much I love the guy and what a high information viewer I am, but this was a disaster for Obama.”
MSNBC’s Ed Schultz – ‘I was absolutely stunned, Obama was off his game” Continue reading
It’s been the year of the woman for comedy around the nation…
Chelsea Handler not only has her show, but five others to boot. Whitney Cummings has taken over the roasts from Lisa Lampanelli and has her own sit com now in season two.
And moving up the fast track is another young star named Iliza Schlesinger. Continue reading
Hallmark is closing a plant in Topeka that employs 500 people. Now, which “Maxine” card should I send to someone who was just laid off from Hallmark?
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Passenger seats on three different American Airlines flights have jarred loose in recent days, leaving passengers in the laps of people behind them. American is now charging a $50 fee to every passenger who wants attached seating.
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Remember the good old days when the only loose thing on an airplane was the stewardess?
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Holy balls, there’s a dickload to do this weekend…
You guys probably know that I’m into music, soccer, booze, and David Hasselhoff. That much is fairly obvious if you’ve been playing along.
But I’m also really into meat (insert Leftridge joke here). So this weekend, like any real meat-lovin’ KC heart-attack-waiting-to-happen, I’ll be strapping on my cowboy boots and heading on down to Kemper for the American Royal BBQ. Continue reading
In the 1800’s Kansas City was known as the last big city before you hit THE WILD WEST...
Dodge City had the legends Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson, and near Kansas City were the James Gang and other big name outlaws.
Then, nearly 100 years later Kansas City once again became known for its outlaws and lawmen. We had Pretty Boy Floyd and John Dillinger and the famous Union Station Massacre where some four law officers and a fugitive criminal were gunned down. That lead to the FBI being able to carry firearms.
Yep, we were once a wild, crazy, talked about town.
That ended with all the do-gooders that followed the depression era, bibles in hand. Unfortunately, we’re still led by these boring losers and so our city fell and fell hard. Continue reading
I’m not much into those cheesy reality shows…
You won’t catch me watching Dancing With The Has Been Stars, Survivor, Biggest Loser or The Voice.
But there’s one reality nugget that’s got me sucked in.
It’s the Las Vegas PAWN STARS on History Channel that has quietly become one of cable’s biggest hits and is apparently only surpassed in the genre by JERSEY SHORE.
Leftfield Pictures, the production company behind PAWN STARS, cranks out 40 to 50 half hour shows a year which have made owners Rick Harrison, Richard ‘The Old Man’ Harrison and Corey ‘Big Hoss’ Harrison, worlwide stars. Austin ‘Chumlee’ Russell ain’t doing bad either. Continue reading
Now that the leaves are turning, it’s comedy season again…
The fall and winter brings out the bigger names in the biz with less outdoor events to compete against. And this past week, for first time, Chris Franjola stormed the stage at Stanford’s and smoked it. Chris even surprised me with his unique style and power on stage.
Franjola has two TV series. He’s the lead with Josh Wolf on Chelsea Lately. And he has his own show, “After Lately.” Chris and Josh are the lead writers for both shows.
“I have to watch reality TV and the news all day, every day to write the jokes for the nightly talk shows,” he told me. “That’s right a steady dose of ‘Honey Boo, Boo’ and the Kardashians.”
Needless to say, Chris earns his money. Continue reading
I can’t believe we’re less than 40 days out from the election and Obama is STILL winning…
Seriously?
The first of three Presidential Debates is this Wednesday and it is looking like the best (and maybe only) way for Romney to take charge of this election is to “Win” the debates.
About 53 million people watched the first debate in 2008, so a lot is riding on the respective candidates performance.
So why then did the Democratic National Committee spokesman, Brad
Woodhouse, tell Fox News that Romney will win the first debate?
Are the Democrats really that worried about the President’s debate skills? Continue reading
“If you don’t like your job, you don’t strike. You just go in every day and do it really half-assed. That’s the American way.” – Homer Simpson
It’s all very easy to criticize The Kansas City Star anymore, but sometimes The Star itself just makes it so easy.
A topic The Star should be able to take ownership of online quite easily is high school sports. The interest level locally appears quite high, so the potential for revenue – something The Star desperately needs, if we go by the layoffs and two weeks of furlough this year – should be there.
Thus a concerted online effort for prep sports would seem to be a natural (why The Star doesn’t have a site devoted to the Chiefs is an even deeper mystery). Instead, what Kansas City’s biggest news gathering operation puts out is a little abortion of a website called Varsity Zone. Continue reading
